SHRPG: The 8 Pages [Dire/Humanity]

Unknown Time, Unknown Day

Dire woke up in an endless void. He couldn't see a thing.
He was restrained at the wrists and ankles on something that felt to be a shackled wall.
He didn't panic, he just figured this was some kind of sorority dream.
"Yeah, very funny guys! What's next? The nut-shot? The stripper? Please be the stripper..." He called out into the darkness.
As his eyes began to adjust, he began to see trees. He looked behind him, to see he wasn't on a wall... He was tied to a cross.
He looked back forward, and panic began to settle within him.
There were little houses everywhere, like that of a medieval town.
He turned around again, to see a bunch of things to start a fire below and behind him.
He looked forward and now saw all the bodies of everyone he'd ever killed.
He wasn't going to turn around, but a strange snap noise made him turn around.
He saw Jeannie Rose, his best friend, holding a can of that HAD gasoline in it. It was obvious the gas had gone to the firestarters.
Errtu, the demon who provided him powers, was holding a ball of flame.
He was about to plead for his life, but he was interrupted by screams.
The screams of terror and agony from the people he had killed. No matter how disfigured they were, no matter how long ago they had died, they were still there... Screaming...
He felt warmth climb up his back and begin to burn his skin.
He had felt burns before, but this was different. This was the fire of hell.
It was eternal.
He felt it consume him, and the screams of the damned became his own.
He felt the pain of every person he had killed plus 1000.
He turned back to see Jeannie and Errtu laughing hysterically at his pain, and he turned to see a man in a grey suit. His face was milky white, with no mouth, eyes, nose, or ears. Then he saw the tie.
That's what he was after.
He didn't speak, but he could FEEL what he was trying to say...
"You will suffer."

5:45 A.M, Friday
Malik awoke in a cold sweat. He had a crippling headache and had tears streaming down his face.
He stumbled to the bathroom to wash up.
He was surprised to see something on his medicine cabinet mirror.
It was a page that read in scribbled writing: "Don't look up..."
Of course, Malik disobeyed and was startled to see the same tall man from his dream behind him.
He whipped around with his pistol drawn, and shot.
His bullet only hit the wall behind him, the man was never there in the first place.
The only proof of him being sane was the page. It was still in his hand.
He splashed water and got ready for his day.
He decided to go out and look for a crime to stop.

1:23 P.M, Friday
Malik had just gotten ready to leave, when he heard a scratch-scratchy noise on his wall.
At first he thought it was the man from his dreams.
That sounds pretty gay... He thought, trying to cheer himself up.
He knew it was impossible to be cheerful all alone like this, but at least he tried.
He turned around not to find the monster from his dreams, but the monster of his reality.
His chalkboard.
"You scared me, you asshole."
The chalkboard read: Daniel Phillips
He knew exactly who he was, and what had happened to him.
Daniel was the only survivor of the most recent "Slender Stabbing".
His daughter had went on a killing spree over the Slenderman and killed her entire family.
His father wasn't home at the time.
He had a family of three children. She was the oldest.
She had killed her younger brother and mother.
The older brother tried to fend her off, but took too much damage for him to live.
When Daniel arrived home he had found his entire family dead around him.
He immediately called 911 and told them to come immediately.
He went upstairs to find out how this could've happened.
There had to have been a reasonable explanation, right?
He wasn't around much due to work, maybe he'd missed something.
He stumbled up the stairs and saw the daughter's room.
It was littered with blood and pages. They all had scribbled drawings of the Slenderman on them.
"Oh my God..." Malik said, taken aback.
He felt like a villain...
The bad guy.
He made a disgusted face and put on all black so he could at least be respectful of the man.
He made his way to the subway station right outside his L.A apartment.

8:55 P.M, Friday
Malik  had waited at the subway all day.
He sat on the bench with his head in his hands.
He almost couldn't bring himself to do it.
This was an all-time low.
He was experiencing the Slenderman for real...
He knows what this girl was going through...
Hell, he knows what the guy is going through.
Every holiday, he has no one to go to.
The ones he doesn't go help on, he just sits.
By himself at an empty table.
No family, his mother has nothing to do with him anymore and he had to kill his father.
Those were the only people he was in touch with.
He just sat.
Head in hands.
Sobbing, he couldn't do it.
Yet, he had to.

In his line of work there was something that Humanity had learned. While the Primal beings were incredibly powerful...the culmination of human stupidity was quite formidable as well. Of course he spoke of "The Slender man". The public domain internet sensation went wild in 2009, it started as a meme if Matthew had remembered correctly, then it was followed up by a few video games and some stupid murderers that were pinned upon the ideals of the slender being. The creature was completely fake. Entire fake. the only thing quite possibly that had been more fake than the Slender man was the claims that Elena Vexus massive ass tits were god-given. They're fake Vexus and we all know it!!

Unfortunately, as Matthew had come to realize, human stupidity in it's prime could at times be quite powerful, even for an undefeated villain such as himself. You see, the slender man was not real. Slender man was what was called a "Tulpa". Many people who watched the critically acclaimed show Supernatural begin to think they have the basic understanding of a tulpa. While it's partially accurate they left out some rather gnarly details. For example, a tulpa is a culmination of human imagination, focusing in the powers of emotions, empathy and cognitive thought to create a distortion. Now Tulpa's were not bad to say the least. In fact some actual studies done seemed to indicate that tulpa and plurality could actually assist and improve conditions of those with cognitive or mental illness. The problem is when Tulpa and "sentient imaginary friends" got way too out of control, or several thousands of people believed in something that wasn't true. They believed it so hard that it actually became something more than just a concept.

Of all the emotions humans despise, fear is amongst the most powerful. It's also the most easily accessed. Fear, the very weapon Humanity used was now the source of this very epidemic. Humanity had in fact gone against the Slender man once before, he faced it alongside a being known to him only as "Spirit", and together they destroyed him. But such is the nature of tulpic beings. Until you destroy the belief in them, until you educate the masses and remove the fduel to the fire.... the tulpa will always endure. So now this was the second time Humanity had to hunt down the slender man, had to hunt down fear itself. Not Fear as in his once-mentor, but fear as in the tulpic concept.

"Didn't you kill this thing already? I could have sworn you did." Citizen Zero said as he stepped down through the doorway of the laboratory. His arm was situated in his navy blue sling as the rest of him appeared to be a hoodlum off the streets. that was phrasing things nicely, actually. Jean jacket with a type of home-made armoring under a dirty yellow-gold shirt, ripped and torn jeans revealing nothing as his joggers underneath were as black as pitch. The shadows cast by his hood were perfect enough to cover his face as he walked around the sub-section of his mentor's lair.

"I just had an entire interior monologue about how I did and how it's a tulpic being, so please try to keep up." Matthew said with a little bit of a smirk, half a laugh escaping him. Citizen Zero looked to him and wasn't entirely sure what he was expected to do. It wasn't very often that Humanity showed such personality, especially not of late.

"Well, excuse me then. My crystal ball is broken. I suppose that you don't me asking what your next move is." He asked, trying to simply press on with his work, seeing if Humanity has simply had a lapse in character there for a moment or if something had genuinely changed.

"Uuuh, when dealing with a tulpa it's like dealing with a hurricane. Hurricanes while not actually living things will always navigate to warmer water. that being because hurricanes cannot continue their existence inside of cold water. Tulpas will always try to find a way to feed into themselves, a way of self sustenance. Even if the tulpa itself is not to the level of sentience. It's a natural reaction.....errrm. So I'm going to need to cross reference it." He said before pulling away form the microscope and walking past his protégé, mumbling to himself and actually being quite vocal as he talked things aloud. something had changed in fact, and it was actually a nice thing to behold.

"Slendy tends to kidnap children right, never really comes in contacts with adults too often. Children go missing but adults turn up dead." He stated, just rattling off small information he remembered from Humanity's prior endeavors...and his own personal distaste in internet memes. "As much as I love playing Sam and Dean, do you think maybe we could get back to doing our actual work after this, hm?"

"I'm headed out to investigate a bit of the latest crime scene, I'll be able to pick up any readings. Feel free to stay here and brush up on your tulpic knowledge. Oh and uh...don't forget. if you so happen to see the Slender man all you need to do is tell him you're not afraid of him. Don't be afraid, if you're afraid it will feed on that fear, there's anti-anxiety pills in the right drawer of my desk and some of the antifear in the glass temp-locks." He said, pointing to the large glass laboratory grade refrigerator with the bulletproof glass. Matthew went out on his own, all alone, leaving the young man behind with a large, dusty book on fictitious things that could never logically be....

7:30pm. - 8:55pm.  ~Humanity

Humanity had seen it all before, so this was nothing new. His mask over his face as he stepped in through the window, looking over all the nice little drawings of the tulpic nightmare he had face off against before. It was targeting children this time, killing them instead of kidnapping them. It went against everything the tulpic essence was created from. This was disturbing, because of all things this confirmed Humanity's suspicions.

The tulpa had gained sentience....

It was able to reason, ration and move in ways that it could define for itself. It could breach set parameters sanctioned by the beliefs instilled around it, and it could now operate as a solely independent essence. The good news was that this meant that the tulpa could finally be dealt with once and for all. The bad news, however just kept piling on. A sentient tulpa was incredibly dangerous, it was privy to the ways of it's own powers, it knew it's own limitations, and it bypassed the limitations beliefs had placed on it prior. It could possibly take other forms, it could possibly take on new powers and new appearances. Worst of all, the tulpa obviously had a grudge about it's previous defeat. Humanity knelt down and picked up a paper, one of the drawings the little girl had made in her moments of madness.

the picture was of three little children huddled around each other with a man, colored in black as it stabbed the slender man, blood flying everywhere. There were little stick-figures around, but the most notable piece of this had been the picture of a line-art dragon that seemed to be the shadow of the man who was stabbing the slender. His mind flashed back as he recalled impaling the tulpic entity upon his dagger, the slender creature letting out a pained reverb as it's essence leaked. He remembered the three children he had moved to defend, he remembered as they watched him shove the creature off his blade and onto the ground, where he jumped on it and continued to stab it. Over, and over, and over again.

It remembered him....

No doubt it would want vengeance, so it was luring him out. Targeting children this time, knowing full well Humanity would investigate into it. This was a much more deadly game they played from the last time. Taking his reprieve, Humanity left in peace, the scene had already cooled off, so there was little to interfere with his sneaking. Of course he would remove his gear and fixate himself to a more social appearance. A white tee shirt with a long-sleeved button down flannel, the pattern of plaid being mainly black with deep purple stripes and a slightly more flamboyant green. Maneuvering himself towards the subway he walked over and sat himself down on a bench. Looking to his watch he couldn't help but notice it was 8:55pm. He had been gone a while, and he began to wonder how Citizen Zero would be handling his studies. With this thing actively hunting Humanity, he would be the most likely place to start.

Though there was a bit of a sob that snagged his attention. He mentally groaned as he looked about to see a young man, just barely older than him, sitting with his head in his hands. Matthew wasn't quite sure what it was, but he could identify someone in distress easier when they were crying. This wasn't one of those "boo-hoo poor me" cries, it was one of those "Oh fuck me, I'm screwed." type of sobs. Fixating his black beanie on his hand and pushing the thick rimmed glasses back up the bridge of his nose he stood up and walked over towards the crying person and gave a little cough.

"I'm not sure what's got you down...but it's you and me both." He said as he took a seat next to the man, reaching into his bag and withdrawing a fifth of whisky. He twisted the top off of it and extended it towards Dire. "I like the burn but, if it's not your think that's cool too." He said, the offer for the drink available for the man if he so chose to take it. He actually was sort of hoping that the man wouldn't ask his age, it didn't look good when a minor offered an adult alcohol, after all...

Malik sniffed as the random guy came up to him.
He looked up to see if this was just a drunk hobo.
He determined that he was quite sober actually, in fact it looked as if he'd never even touched any alcohol.
It was obvious that he was a minor [he was STELLAR at guessing ages], but he was probably more mature than him so he said nothing.
He just composed himself and forced a smile.

"Can't drink... Wife would kill me..." He lied. Truth was he wasn't married, no where near it. He just hope the lie didn't show.

He rolled his eyes, "Life sucks man... I know that sounds really whiny, but I can't help it..."

He pulled up the report Daniel Phillip's daughter's rampage on his phone. He held it up to show Humanity, "That's fucked up, right?"
He made a face, "You happen to believe in that stuff? Ya know, the Slenderman... Because- call me crazy- I think he's haunting me. He's in my nightmares AND my good dreams. I see him when I'm awake, AND when I'm in broad daylight..."
He hoped he didn't come across as a lunatic, but it sort of flowed out.
"I'm Malik, by the way..."

Your wife would kill you? You're not that much older than me, and while marriage at that age isn't impossible it's not something I'd peg. You're not even wearing a wedding ring. You're terrible at this. Humanity thought to himself before he shrugged and took a drink of the bottle. Humanity had been picking up on peoples lies for a long time. You could eventually learn to read one's body structure and pick up on faint ways to trace when one was lying. It seemed almost superhuman but it was a science. That and obvious lies are obvious. He let out a soft sigh and rolled his head a bit before clearing his throat. "Well she'd kill you for not wearing your wedding ring too... If you don't trust it, you don't trust it. Honesty is the best policy." He said as he took a drink.

   ....what a fucking hypocrite.

  The bastard literally JUST revealed to his friend that he was the ever elusive and notorious Humanity. His friends took up being vigilantes and all he did was pretend to be some new kid that was too innocent to be one. On top of that, he ended up getting himself caught in an explosion and almost killed. He bounces back and what's the first thing he does? Goes back out and lies to them. Though all of his lies did not process fully as the young man went on and on about how his life was absolutely terrible. Not that Humanity disagreed...he'd simply....seen worse situations. Dire made his statement, talking about how slenderman was stalking him and THEN, after the rant of craziness decided to introduce himself. Humanity just took another drink before sighing.

  "Woah, woah. Ok. Malik. That's a cool name. I got a buddy with that  name. It's a last name but it counts.... uhm...ok. Malik, buddy." He said as he cleared his throat, shifting on the bench to turn and look at him with a slightly concerned and slightly smart-assed look on his narrowed eyes behind his glasses. "You don't trust my alcohol. But you trust me with your name and with a speil of crazy shit that no one anywhere, ever, would believe?" After he left that sink in for a moment he nodded.

 "Alright. I mean, I believe you but...just. For the sake of social interactions in the future...at least lead with the badass name before the crazy ass stuff." He said as he leaned back and took another drink from his bottle of liquor. He let out a slightly exhausted sigh. Now what was he supposed to do with this? How was he supposed to fight a tulpa of fear while standing alongside a coward? Maybe he could just let the tulpa have this one and he'd track it down on the next one....? No, no that wasn't the right thing to do....

 buuuut he was a villai-NO!
   
   "Tell ya what. I think I gots me an idea. We're gonna get rid of ol' slendy. Whaddaya say?" He asked as he took another swig from his bottle before finally capping it.

He understood where this guy was coming from.
He felt drunk on sadness. Not alcohol.

"Alright man, I just don't drink. It's just not my thing. I wish it was I just..." He trailed.
He didn't want to reveal he was a superhuman. Though, he was normally open about it... He'd met Humanity's type before.
They seem strangely innocent, but they're ready to peg your bounty as soon as you turn your back.
Typical cliché merc move... He thought.
But this guy WAS pretty convincing.
The only thing leading him away from his theory was the fact that people don't last more than one job with that move, and there was no way this was his first job.
He pulled the page he had found on his medicine cabinet and handed it to the guy, "Okay... Thanks."
I'll have to look up his bounty later... He thought
NO!!! This guy just tried to cheer you up! Ya douche!
He wanted nothing more than to give the Slenderman a swift kick straight to the balls, but anytime he saw the thing it just melted his courage.

"Well we gotta find some way to lure it out, and we gotta find some way to trap it." Matthew said with a little shrug as he began looking around for any signs or context that the good old slendy was amongst them right now. He had no clue what to do. He, of course, had his own plan, but that plan wasn't likely to work when you added in a grown man that was shaking in his boots like he was a teenaged girl at her first rated R slashed. Not that he could really blame the guy. The last time he fought the slender tulpa he had quite the experience himself. It was...harrowing.. yeah. That was a good word for it.

"Well we'd best think of a plan. Best not stay in one place too long. Openly public places are great to avoid him. He stalks the lone wolf types I'd bet. What is this even like...a demon or....what is Slender? Urban mythos come real?" He asked as he stood up, looking around for a place to exit. Finding the stairways up to the city streets, he started to walk towards them, but he'd stop to ensure that Malik was coming with him. The whole purpose was to keep him safe after all, wasn't it? Hopefully Malik had a plan, because Humanity's plan involved using him as bait...which wasn't very nice.

Malik stood up. He wasn't one to drag someone into his fights, unless it was 100% necessary.
Wouldn't this qualify as necessary?
That was his predicament. He knew he would either go mad or get the balls to fight the thing.
Honestly, he was fine with either.
Yet, he would RATHER live life PARTIALLY sane...
He stood and followed this newfound savior.
Nah... That don't sound right.
This newfound friend?
Ally... Yeah, ally.
"I like to say Slender is a manifestation of beliefs. That's why heaven was proven non-existent, any and everyone who believed had their doubts... So, IF the beings Jesus and God were real... Due to the doubts they were erased from existence. OR, if I want to REALLY risk being wrong... I'd say that people believe God/Jesus doesn't WANT to be found. So he provided a way to be proved wrong to sort out the people who were hardcore and only halfway." He paused
"Not saying I believe that stuff. Just stating the opinion. So I think so many people unknowingly forced Slender into existence, along with many other things thought to be fake. The only difference is people WANT the Slender to be found. Because those who believe are so powerful that they make him aggressive..."
He chuckled
"Sorry, I just about started ranting on my opinion of the universe..."

He tilted his head. "So he likes to attack lone wolves? Then that's what we need to be. I'm after this douchebag's tie. No one makes a cowering wimp out of me. I don't care if it means becoming a sick maniac just like him... I'm gonna take his tie. As a reminder, do NOT fuck with me. I just need help getting there. Getting to find out how to defeat him. You don't have to go with me from there."
He said with newfound confidence. He knew it was going to be rushed as soon as he saw the creepy bastard, but faith was always nice to have.
"We could go to my apartment...If you want."